Gameplay-related

As Dark Souls is an Action RPG with duel-type combat, you may find terminologies common in RPGs and fighting games used by the community.

Aggro - Possibly short for "Aggravate", it is the action of provoking an enemy or NPC into attempting to engage combat with the player. While this usually means walking within a certain distance of a monster's line of sight, it can also refer to pulling a monster from afar, or attacking certain non-hostile NPCs (which turns them hostile, and provokes them into fighting you).

AoE - Area of effect; refers to attacks that only affect those within a specifc target range or distance

BP - Stands for "Black Phantom". A borrowed phrase from Demon's Souls referring to the hostile phantom form of an NPC or the phantom form of invading players. The Dark Souls equivalent of the Demon's Souls' Black Phantom is "Dark Spirit".

Caster - Descriptor for a player who relies on spells for combat, typically has sacrificed HP and defense for high Intelligence and Attunement. Does well in ranged combat but can do well in close quarters given the proper spells.

Farming - Exploring a particular area to hopefully grab many rare items from enemies or collect souls. Many players will repetitively travel throughout certain areas of the game in hopes of gathering a rare item from a particular enemy such as Humanities.

Ganker - Players who brought allies to a PvP situation, hoping to win by number advantage. In Dark Souls, this terminology usually applies to host players who summon phantom(s) and deliberately waits for an invasion to happen so that the invader usually ends up in a 1v2 or 1v3 situation.

Giant MoM - Sometimes a derogatory term, it refers to players who use the combination of the Giant Set with the Mask of the Mother. This armor combination is considered to endow the most overall survivability in the game, while also giving a very desirable amount of poise. The immense mathematical incentive to wear this armor has been met with controversy, sometimes being blamed for inhibiting aesthetic creativity and diversity.

Giant Dad - Similar to "Giant MoM"; an often-derogatory term denoting players who combine the Giant Set with the Mask of the Father. This armor set provides marginally less survivability than its Mask of the Mother counterpart, but raises the player's equip burden, allowing for easier fast-rolls and Dark Wood Grain Ring use while wearing an extremely protective suit of armor. Much like its counterpart, this armor set is often criticized for reducing variation in equipment and playstyle due to its statistical excellence.

Griefer - Players who take pleasure in bringing grief to other player, even if the griefer does not gain significant gameplay reward or even at a disadvantage. In Dark Souls, it is usually a player that uses high level gear on a low level character (so that it matches the online level range) to invade people. They mostly invade people on Undead Burg and other starting areas to easily win fights against novice players.

Grinding - Doing repeated activity (such as killing enemies) to gain experience points in order to level up faster. In Dark Souls, this basically means "soul farming" as souls is used for levelling up.

Jumping - When being invaded/invading, you attack the invader/are attacked by the host immediately after spawning (i.e. "getting a jump on the invader/host").

Oki - Short for "Okizeme", which is the Japanese term for the tactical situation that is present against an enemy that is rising up off the ground, typically against someone who is recovering from being knocked down. Example of okizeme attacks (often themselves referred to as "okizemes" or "okis") in Dark Souls is swinging your heavy weapon (or casting a spell) while the opponent are getting up (and thus unable to do anything) and timed it so that the attack connects right after the opponent's invincibility wears off. Another example is the "chain backstab".

Praise the Sun! - A common message seen throughout to indicate approval or loyalty of an object, view, or covenant. It is just a mere phrase that is put to show happiness or just because the player felt like putting something down.

PTD/PTDE- Stands for "Prepare To Die Edition", and refers to content that is available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 through the purchase of Artorias of the Abyss (DLC), and content on the PC that was not featured on the original release of Dark Souls.

Pulling - A method used to draw out an enemy for tactical purposes, like separating an enemy from a group, or luring them into a more preferable terrain. This is commonly done with bows, but can be done with a variety of long-ranged attacks, including the use of spells and consumables.

Tank - Used to describe a player in heavy armor and shield. Tends to have high HP, Defense and Poise. Unsubtle, but definitely not inconsiderable in combat.

Whiff - Refers to an attack that fails to connect with the opponent. Whether it misses them completely, or actually hits a character, but because that character was in the middle of a dodge-roll at the time, the attack does no damage. Whiffing an attack usually makes your character open to counter attacks. In Dark Souls, some weapons have special whiff animations that makes the player slower to recover when missing an attack, making whiffing more dangerous (e.g. most axes, halberds, greataxes)

Equipment/Item Abbreviations

Straight up abbreviations, but talismans and catalysts usually ended with -tal and -cat respectively, instead of T and C.